HN39
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Machinbird
For a mental picture, imagine dumping a bucket of dirty water into a clear lake. The initial interface between the two would look something like an inverted mushroom.
Your intriguing model kept lingering in my mind. If your bucket was filled with pebblestones instead of dirty water, would they 'mushroom'?
Yes, but not to the same extent. What is necessary is to "entrain" water between the stones to begin the process of distributing the energy to the adjacent "uninvolved" liquid.
Without entraining-you effectively have a solid object (like a spear or torpedo).
In a high speed impact, the entraining process goes on for a longer time and at higher energies and results in more wreckage to wreckage impacts. The level of destruction is impressive in these situations.
HN39, With regard to your 8.5 meter radius around the engines. How did you choose that particular figure? Your transverse line concept should be fairly accurate.